The experience of LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum in the UK at the time of Covid-19: Dawn River in conversation with Laurie Hartley of Rainbow Migration

Earlier this year Laurie Hartley, Asylum Seeker Support Worker at Rainbow Migration (previously known as UKLGIG), spoke with Dawn River, academic with IRiS, about the experiences of LGBTQI+ people seeking asylum in the UK. This recording has been published during Pride month to highlight the specific challenges facing LGBTQI+ asylum seekers. Pride month takes place... Continue Reading →

22/06/2021 0

Asylum under threat: Conversations with Iris #23 – Nando Sigona and Zoe Gardner

Launched in March 2021, the UK government's New Plan for Immigration is quickly moving towards parliament, after a short and contested period of consultation, 'worth no more than the paper on which it was printed', according to Zoe Gardner, policy advisor with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. Despite its title, the UK... Continue Reading →

14/06/2021 0

“Excessively Cruel”: Detention, deportation and separated families

New research being launched on 8th June explores the impact of the UK’s immigration system on mixed-nationality families. At a webinar chaired by Baroness Shami Chakrabati, Dr Melanie Griffiths will speak about research she conducted looking how UK families are affected by one member’s insecure immigration status and the threat (or reality) of separation through... Continue Reading →

02/06/2021 0

Cities of fears, cities of homes – video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-W2zLysusg In this webinar organised by the University of Birmingham’s Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) on 21 September, Professor Nasar Meer (The University of Edinburgh) explores the need to re-think two coterminous concerns: the rediscovery of the ‘local’ and the city in particular, and an understanding of the experience of displaced migration in Europe.... Continue Reading →

23/09/2020 0

Cities of Fears, Cities of Hopes: IRiS webinar by Nasar Meer

In this Zoom webinar (registration here) organised by the University of Birmingham's Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) on 21 September, Professor Nasar Meer will explore the need to re-think two coterminous concerns: the rediscovery of the ‘local’ and the city in particular, and an understanding of the experience of displaced migration in Europe. Drawing... Continue Reading →

04/09/2020 0

Displaced SGBV survivors and Covid-19

Early in June Sandra Pertek spoke to Pip McKnight of Refugee Women Connect and Hana Leshaj, asylum seeker based in Liverpool and member of Refugee Women Connect Advocacy Group, about the deteriorating reality post COVID-19 for migrants and asylum seekers in the UK, at the time of easing lockdown restrictions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12bNXVGpcIQ&t=140s The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis... Continue Reading →

17/07/2020 0

Community Sponsorship under lockdown

Professor Jenny Phillimore talks to Ruth Forecast and Sharon Baker of Malvern Welcomes about the challenges for refugees and volunteers in the time of Covid-19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TpWVI8emb4 To find out more on IRiS Community Sponsorship research: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/superdiversity-institute/community-sponsorship-evaluation/index.aspx

19/06/2020 0

Manus Island is the soul of the system: Lyndsey Stonebridge talks to Omid Tofighian

In 2017, the Iranian-Kurdish writer, Behrouz Boochani, published an extraordinary book, No Friend But the Mountains which documented his life imprisoned in the Australian-run immigration detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Combining political theory, myth, poetry, memoir, the book rises to the challenge of resisting oppression by creating a new literary form of... Continue Reading →

18/06/2020 0

Community sponsorship Photo Exhibition 2020

In early 2020 the University of Birmingham ran a photo competition for all volunteers and refugees involved in Community Sponsorship in the UK. A number of entries were received, with a winner announced for each group. This online exhibition is a showcase of all of the photos that were entered into the competition. Volunteer group... Continue Reading →

12/06/2020 0

The impact of Covid-19 on migrant women in the UK

In this episode of Conversations with Iris, Dawn River, academic at the Institute of Research into Superdiversity talks to Dr Rubina Jasani, Programme Director for Global Health at The Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute in Manchester (https://www.hcri.manchester.ac.uk/). As an anthropologist, Rubina has been interested in exploring people’s lived experience of violence, displacement and identities; gender... Continue Reading →

11/06/2020 0